Kitchen Break-In

Almond Financiers in the Finished Kitchen

After seven months the kitchen remodel is finally finished.  Wahoo, no more cooking in my parka, boiling water to wash pots or surprising foraging raccoons!  I only had two meltdowns.  Well ok, three, but they were all justified, at least in my mind.  

 

For those of you who love before and after photos, here are two I found from when we moved into the house in 1995.   We have forever banished the color coral from this house!

Our first meal was total comfort food, grilled cheese sandwiches on a rainy night, but the oven needed to be baptized, so to speak.  So I chose Financiers, also sometimes referred to as Friands.  These are deeply satisfying little French cakes.  They can be complicated to make, but I found a much simpler recipe that gives my local bakery a run for their money.   While these cakes look very pretty made with the scalloped molds they taste just as good made in muffin/cupcake pans.

Almond Financiers

Adapted from Martha Stewart Living, February 2008

makes approximately 10-12

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter (Use a good quality butter)

1/3 cup honey

1 cup almond meal (can be found at Trader Joe's)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup sifted confectioners' sugar

3/4 cup sifted cake flour (not self-rising)

1/2 teaspoon salt

5 large egg whites

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Brush muffin pan or molds with butter or use parchment cupcake liners.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, whisking frequently, until golden brown, 6-7 minutes.  Add honey and whisk until combined.  Remove from heat.

Mix almond meal, sugars, flour, and salt.  With mixer on medium speed add egg whites, one at a time, beating after each addition until just combined.  Scrape down sides of bowl.  Reduce speed to low, and add warm butter/honey mixture in a slow, steady stream.  Raise speed to high, and beat for 45 seconds more.

Spoon batter into muffin cups or molds. Bake until edges are golden brown, 15-25 minutes. Rotate pan/molds after approximately 10 minutes to brown evenly.  Let cool slightly (about 5 minutes) before unmolding cakes.  Don’t wait too long or cakes will be difficult to remove from molds.  You may need to use the tip of a knife to help release the cakes from the molds. Financiers are best served warm or the same day they are baked.  These cakes can be kept for up to 3 days, stored in an airtight container at room temperature.

Other Financier recipes can be found in:

Paris Sweets by Dorie Greenspan

Ready for Dessert: My Best Recipes by David Lebovitz

La Tartine Gourmande: Recipes for an Inspired Life by Beatrice Peltre

Gifts from the Kitchen by Annie Rigg

Get Your Accordion Ready For The Holidays!

Not too many people have the ability to play this charming instrument, but almost all of us can fold paper and thus create accordion pleats.  This easy and fun project has so many uses- cards, mini-books, photo albums, gift tags, and little journals.

They make memorable handmade gifts that don't cost a fortune or require a bunch of tools. You just need paper, scissors or craft knife, ruler and glue or glue stick.

You can really experiment with this project.  Try different sized paper, but be sure you have a square.  You can make as many pockets as you want or just use one for a tag or ornament.  

My favorite part of this project is choosing the paper!  The thinner the paper the easier it is to fold, but you can still use heavier papers such as scrapbooking paper or cardstock.  Here is an idea- have your kids color and decorate paper that you then fold into the pockets. Finish by adding photos of the kids, creating a special photo album for a family member.  

This project came from a wonderful book called Origami Card Craft by Karen Elaine Thomas.

In this book the author goes over the basic folds and also provides illustrations with directions. To make this even easier I found this video clip of the author demonstrating this project!  Now there is no excuse not to try this out.

With over 25 projects you could keep yourself busy folding for weeks on end, of course with accordion music playing in the background.

Repurposed Container Gardening

        When is a milk crate not a milk crate?  

Yes, it is an old milk crate.

I like container gardening.  Actually I like gardening that involves the sun and in my yard that means using containers because the sun that exists in my yard is primarily to be found on my patio. So I'm a dedicated container gardener.  

Until recently I've always been content with using terracotta pots, but this summer I've fallen hard for whimsical containers.  Particularly unusual containers that once had a previous life outside of gardening. 

Planter using a golf ball bucket.

You are really only limited by your imagination and the ability to provide good drainage when it comes to repurposing items into planters.

Coffee bean bag planter - Sarah Starkey

Toy truck - FundementoDesigns

Repurposed teapots

When you use wire framed items for containers you'll need to line them with some type of netting and moss to keep the soil from washing away-

As far as what to put into these containers, I'm very, very fond of succulents because they need so little soil to grow, aren't water hogs, and are easy to propagate. One plant will eventually give you lots of little new plants.

Tool box planter 

Tool box planter

My local nursery's vertical frame overflowing with succulents.

My old 3 tiered planter filled with propagated succulents.

Here is my short tutorial on creating a succulent planter-

1) Find a container that either has the ability to drain or that you can drill holes into the bottom.

2) Fill with cactus/succulent potting soil.

3) Gather together enough succulents to pretty much fill the container.  Try asking friends and neighbors for cuttings.  These you can just stick straight into the soil.  Or watch out for small succulents at your local nurseries.  These should only cost a couple of dollars.

4) Gently place your plants into the soil and tamp down the soil around the succulent.

5) Finish by gently watering your lovely new planter.

Here is my list of ideas I'm considering for repurposing as planters: tea cup, shell, shoe, colander, wheel barrow, rain gutter, wagon, bathtub, old dresser, shopping cart, pail, and a watering can.  Am I missing anything?  Oh yeah, the kitchen sink!

There are some wonderful books published on succulent gardening, as well as, container gardening.  Give these a look:

Succulent container gardens : design eye-catching displays with 350 easy-care plants / Debra Lee Baldwin

Designing with succulents / Debra Lee Baldwin

Hardy succulents : tough plants for every climate / Gwen Moore Kelaidis

Crazy about cacti and succulents / Ray Rogers

The succulent garden : a practical gardening guide / Yvonne Cave

Container garden idea book

Tips for container gardening : 300 great ideas for growing flowers, vegetables & herbs / editors & contributors of Fine Gardening

Container gardening : 250 design ideas & step-by-step techniques

Contain yourself : 101 fresh ideas for fantastic container gardens / Kerstin P. Ouellet

P.S. Come take a look at our beautiful deck at Fairfax Library.  It recently received a makeover with many lovely container plantings of succulents, all done by our wonderful Teen Advisory Group. 

I welcome back my trusty camera with a Panzanella salad!

Zion National Park in Utah

This long break between postings is the fault of my camera.  It went on vacation without me and I was surprised to learn my camera took great pictures without me behind the lens.  My poor ego!

Zion National Park

Escalante Utah

Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

Bryce Canyon National Park 

Looking out towards the Continental Divide in Colorado

The camera took a two week car trip to Neveda, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming and Colorado while I stayed home with the kitchen remodel (see below for current status). I didn't cook once, unless you consider making popcorn cooking.  Mostly, I microwaved frozen dinners, fixed breakfast cereal, and snacked on cheese and crackers.

Kitchen remodel after 11 weeks

The new kitchen arch

Insulation made from blue jeans

So to get myself back into the temporary garage kitchen I made Panzanella, an easy and simple Italian bread salad.  The nice thing about this versatile salad is you can tailor it to suit your taste.  The core ingredients are bread (quality crusty bread), tomato, cucumber, onions, olive oil and vinegar.  If you look around you’ll find a slew of recipes. 

Panzanella

Traditionally, stale bread is used in this dish because it soaks up the dressing nicely.  I like to toast my bread, which is not authentic, I prefer my bread lightly moistened rather than overly soggy.  Experiment, be creative, and  have fun making this great summer salad, but make sure to get the best tasting tomatoes you can find.

Panzanella

I adapted this recipe from the July 2011 issue of Cook’s Illustrated.

6 cups of rustic Italian bread cut into 1 inch pieces

½ cup extra-virgin olive oil (I probably used a bit more than ½ cup)

Salt & pepper

1 ½ pounds tomatoes, cores, seeded, and cut into 1 inch pieces

1 cucumber, peeled, halved lengthwise, seeded, and sliced thin

1 shallot, sliced thin

¼ cup chopped fresh basil (I used ½ cup)

3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar (I used Balsamic vinegar)

My extra additions:

Corn, avocado, mixed greens, feta, and toasted almonds.

1)  Adjust the oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees.  Toss bread pieces with 2-4 tablespoons olive oil and ¼ teaspoon salt.  Arrange bread in a single layer on a baking sheet.  Toast bread until just starting to turn light golden, 15-20 minutes. stirring halfway through.  Set aside to cool to room temperature.

2) Gently toss tomatoes and ½ teaspoon salt in a large bowl.  Transfer to colander and set over bowl to  drain for 15 minutes, tossing occasionally. (I also use all of the juices from the coring and seeding of  the tomatoes, which was approximately ½ cup of liquid.)

3) Whisk remaining 6 tablespoons olive oil, vinegar, ¼ teaspoon pepper, reserved tomato juices.  I also  added a couple of teaspoons of lemon juice, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard.  Add bread pieces, toss to coat and let stand for 10 minutes, tossing occasionally.  (I use just half of the dressing and I let the bread sit only 5 minutes so it is just slightly soft.

4) Add tomatoes, cucumber, shallot, basil and any other ingredients you choose and gently toss with the remaining dressing.  Serve immediately.

Look for these Panzanella recipes:

Mediterranean Fresh by Joyce Goldstein

Cook with Jamie by Jamie Oliver

Lettuce In Your Kitchen by Chris Schlesinger

Saveur Cooks Authentic Italian

Lidia Cooks From the Heart by Lidia Bastanich

San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market Cookbook by Christopher Hirsheimer